How did you become a proghead?

My Dad played The Dark Side of the Moon on the stereo for us (my Mom, brother and me) when I was a kid. Maybe around 1975 or so. I remember the heartbeat seemed a little scary at first, but the helicopter noises and weird synthesizer noises from On the Run clicked with me immediately. 

Hearing Fragile--I never heard anything like that before---then a British friend of mine I met in my college town turned me on to Selling England--and once again while very different than Yes---had a mesmerizing magic that it still has for me today. I'm a prog fan but a lot of it isn't really my thing---so I'm a selective prog fan. I tend to appreciate the originality of the best of the best.

I was 12 in 1969, and a friend played his brother's copy of ITCOTCK for me. 

Edited by cstack3 - February 12 2021 at 16:00

I may be a progarchiveshead, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a Proghead. There's a huge amount of music outside of the Prog sphere that I appreciate, although much of it relates to Prog in various ways. Perhaps what kind of head I am depends on the hat I'm wearing at that moment. Does the hat make the head or the head make the hat? Or both or neither. I have tended to gravitate towards the unusual and always have, which is why a lot of "avant prog" appeals to me. I was raised mostly on classical music, and perhaps I liked how various progressive rock utilised classical form, and even purloined some of the music. An early Prog fave of mine was Focus' Hamburger Concerto. I wasn't much into a lot of yahoo check out my what I'm packing (is that a strat in my pants or am I just glad to see you?) testosterone fueled rock, even if Hamburger Concerto is very ballsy in its way. Later on I really got into it because I was searching for "Hairless Heart" from The Lamb..., and didn't know what it was other than it's some kind of Prog and Peter Gabriel related. That got me delving deep, although I was already familiar with some Prog. Gryphon was one of the first bands I got into when small (in my brothers collection), and Alan Parsons Project with I Robot (I didn't know the prog term then). And I knew a lot of Floyd, some Yes, Rush and Zappa. It's all terribly convoluted and dull, but suffice to say, here I am, proghead or not.

I was a metalhead before getting into prog. Then my father (who is actually not all that into prog) told me to listen to Jethro Tull, so I did, and loved them.

Epignosis wrote: A Crimson Mellotron wrote: Here's a question that should spawn a variety of different answers. How did you, fellow forum users, become progheads? What was the reason for you to dive into this not-so-obvious ocean of music and what made you stay? Did you discover prog by yourself or did you inherit this good taste from someone? I'm curious to see what stories there are. I just like music.

Catcher10 wrote: This website pays me a ton of money to be a prog head......although I really don't like prog but hey its money.

You're right!

Catcher10 wrote: Epignosis wrote: A Crimson Mellotron wrote: Here's a question that should spawn a variety of different answers. How did you, fellow forum users, become progheads? What was the reason for you to dive into this not-so-obvious ocean of music and what made you stay? Did you discover prog by yourself or did you inherit this good taste from someone? I'm curious to see what stories there are. I just like music. Rob (aka Skeletor!) good to see u here Bro.....Working on any new music??

My brother came home from boarding school for Thanksgiving vacation. He had all this new music he'd been exposed to. I was mildly interested (a lot of it was heavy guitar oriented).